Internet leads the way to class reunions

When members of the West Hempstead High School Class of 1961 gathered for a 50-year reunion in October, it was a celebration of life.

"We're old people," said Carol Riché, of Amity Harbor, one of the reunion organizers.

Using the Internet to locate classmates, they found 90 percent of them, but many were deceased, and some were in ill health or had sick spouses and couldn't travel to a reunion.

"When we looked at the deceased list," Riché said, "we called the reunion a celebration of life, that we can honor those that passed on and honor God that we're here."

Riché's class is among many on Long Island whose graduates have reunions. Classes marked eight-, 15- 45- and 50-year graduation anniversaries this year.

Graduates from as far away as Hawaii signed up for the West Hempstead High School Class of 1961 50-year reunion. Riché, a retired insurance broker, said she spent $400 of her own money on phone calls to help produce a 10-year reunion held at Westbury Manor in 1971. Of 225 graduates, she and a committee of six found 80 percent then.

Using social media to find classmates for the 50th, the number increased to nearly 90 percent, she said. One hundred and thirty-six people attended the three-day event held at Melville Marriott.

"Everybody did research locating classmates, which is the hardest job," Riché said. "Because of the Internet, we were able to go online and find people. Many came for the first time, because it was the 50th. They've done college, have children and grandchildren, and are coming to see their friends. It makes me cry."

Like other organizers, Riché found planning a reunion, "a lot of work, a lot of time."

"The upside of this," Riché said, "is the joy, the love and the friendship that you feel when everyone is together. . . . It leaves you with a happy feeling. In bad times, it's so uplifting."

Boomers get in touch

Reunion organizers agree that the Internet has greatly simplified the search for graduates. Email, websites, blogs and social media such as Facebook, Classmates.com and YouTube enable the organizers to reach schoolmates across the United States and the world, in minutes.

The movers and shakers behind reunions are baby boomers wanting to reconnect with high school chums, have fun, relive fond memories and stay in touch.

Many of the organizers are retired, but some still have jobs. Working in committees or on their own, they volunteer the months it takes to track down classmates, sell them tickets to cover the cost of hotel or restaurant venues, book hotel rooms for out-of-towners and plan activities, often spread over a weekend.

To personalize the occasion and reduce costs, most handle all of the planning themselves. They see to the music, memorabilia and other details, such as taking pictures and paying for decorations.

It can be a daunting undertaking, but the organizers tackle and accomplish it with enthusiasm, some even at the expense of time spent with their families.

"I do this just as if it was a party for my own family," said Rose Marie Liotta, who spearheaded a 50-year reunion in September for her Elmont Memorial High School Class of 1961. "I want them to have a fabulous night. . . . It's going to leave everybody with a special memory in their hearts."

Perfect timing to organize

After careers in banking and the military, Gene DiLorenzo had time on his hands when he retired from the U.S. Army Reserves in 2009.

"All of a sudden I was home seven days a week with nothing to do," said the former Bethpage resident, who moved to Corona, Calif., in 1978. His wife, Betty, suggested he organize a reunion of his Bethpage High School Class of 1966.

"I thought it was great," DiLorenzo recalled. "We had a lot of friends in common."

He organized a 45-year reunion in Bethpage last year for his class and four other classes. More than 200 graduates came from around the country for the three-day event, which featured get-togethers at the homecoming football game of their alma mater and golfing at Bethpage State Park. Entertainment included an opera singer, a magician and a sword-swallowing contest.

Starting a year before the 45th, DiLorenzo hunted for classmates by leafing through the school yearbook, making phone calls and circulating a monthly newsletter. He also sent emails and used Classmates.com and Facebook.

Working 10 hours a day, he located half of the more than 400 graduates from his class. Three classmates in New York helped him find 1,200 people from the Classes of '65, '67, '68 and '69. They contacted 500.

Two weeks before the reunion, DiLorenzo arrived in New York to "see that everything was going well."

Some of the 200 who attended "drove their motor homes across country," he said. "One man was blind, and his son took him. It was a lot of fun. We couldn't have done it without the Internet."

Frank Capone, of Wading River, is semiretired and has 10 grandchildren, but the former CPA and financial officer donates his skills and spare time to the Plainview-Old Bethpage High School Class of 1965 Alumni Association as its treasurer.

He was on an eight-member committee -- led by Lorrie Scallatino, who lives in Lancaster, Pa., and is the association's president; and Maureen Brull of upstate New York, its secretary -- that organized a 45-year reunion last year. "Those two women found 400 [of 624] classmates," Capone said.

A 50-year reunion is in the works for 2015, he said, "but people don't want to wait so long to come together," so annual "meet and greet" picnics and a major reunion every five years will be held, he added.

As the association's "go-to person," he keeps members committed. "I'm a results-oriented person," he said. "I like taking on challenging projects."

Fruitful, but no easy task

But pulling together a reunion can be overwhelming for some. For a 40-year reunion of the H. Frank Carey High School Class of 1971 in September, Cheryl Sirotta-Frank, a cancer data manager at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, spent more than a year contacting classmates, some through Facebook, Yahoo.com and Pipl.com. Of 473 in the class of the school in Franklin Square, she reached 200.

"Once you get on Facebook and this one talks to that one and that one talks to this one, it just snowballs from there," said Sirotta-Frank, of West Hempstead.

Of the 200 contacted, 168 classmates were at the reunion dinner at Carlyle at the Palace in Plainview. Sirotta-Frank and a committee of four planned it, but it was taxing for her.

"This is the second one I've done," she said. "It's really been a labor of love, but it's just an astronomical job. I really don't know why I do it. This is definitely the end. The 50th, I'm going as a guest."

The Westhampton Beach High School Class of 1966 held a 45-year reunion in October. Karen Nidzyn Glover, of Aquebogue, a retired Verizon representative, was on a five-member committee that did the planning. She hoped at least half of the 98 students who were in the class would attend. Nearly half did.

"It's a great feeling to know that after all these years you're still able to get it together and see people you may not have seen for the last five years," Glover said.

A committee of six produced the Babylon High School Class of 1961 50-year reunion celebrated in September. The class had 215 graduates. Invitations were also sent to graduates of the Classes of 1960, '62 and '63. About 125 classmates representing all of the classes attended, including some from Norway, Finland and the Netherlands.

The organizers used a 40-year reunion list, email and Facebook, "a lot," said Rich Curley of Lake Ronkonkoma, the class treasurer and website administrator.

Planning reunions energized him and enabled him to stay "friendly with people I've known throughout the years." But like other high school graduates of his era, Curley knows time is not on their side for many more get-togethers. "We often say," he said with a hint of sadness, "what are we going to do when this is over?"

Do's and Don'ts

Veteran Long Island planners share their do's and don'ts for a successful reunion.

1. "Do it yourself to control planning and costs. Get dedicated people who are retired to search for classmates. The key is a monthly newsletter, and send e-mails constantly."

-- Gene DiLorenzo, Bethpage High School Class of 1966; 951-515-7815

2. "Start early. Don't wait too long. You must be organized. You have to keep searching and searching for people right up to the event. You want as many people to come as possible."

-- Rose Marie Liotta, Elmont Memorial High School Class of 1961; 516-569-6560

3. "To get people to come to a reunion you must have personal telephone contacts. We did everything by e-mail, but without the personal phone calls you don't get the people to come."

-- Carol Riché, West Hempstead High School Class of 1961; 516-333-7343

4. "It's important to designate someone to manage the finances, and when selecting a website designer choose a local firm to ensure your wishes are carried out."

-- Frank Capone, Bethpage-Plainview High School Class of 1965; contact him via POBHS1965.com

5. "You have to sit at the computer."

Cheryl Sirotta-Frank, H. Frank Carey High School Class of 1971; 516-481-4631Rose Marie Liotta likes to plan parties. So she was happy to spearhead a 50-year reunion in September for her Elmont Memorial High School Class of 1961.

"In June of 1961 our classmates walked out of graduation, and most of us never heard from or saw them again," said Liotta, a secretary who lives in Cedarhurst. "We had a great class, and I thought it would be something wonderful to do for everyone."

And that she did, with an assist from the Internet, social media sites and a classmate.

Liotta's class included about 300 graduates. About 30 years ago tracking down even a quarter of them would have mostly involved pen and paper, stamps, a corded telephone and is this either "a yearlong" or do we mean "and many years"?a years-long/ao//many years--tracy head start to result in a decent showing to mark the occasion.

Liotta and her helpers made contact with 240 classmates and reunited with more than 100 of them at a reunion at the Stuart Manor Country Club.//??when did she start the search--tracy//see add below--tracy

And she gives much of the credit to the Internet, which she said facilitated the task of finding her fellow graduates.